I'm Not in Capeside Anymore: New New Yorker Williams hits the streets.   (Photo: Stephanie Pfriender Stylander)

Michelle Williams is given to superlatives. Making The Station Agent was “nearly the most fun I’ve ever had doing anything in my life!” And shooting Wim Wenders’s latest film, a drama about homelessness in L.A., is “the coolest thing that’s ever happened to me!” Indeed, at times the 23-year-old sounds just like Jen, the bad gal gone good she used to play on Dawson’s Creek. But in the great tradition of that show’s other thespians—James Van Der Beek, anyone?—Williams has proved that she’s more than just an adolescent actress. She gave Gwyneth’s British accent a run for its pound sterling in Me Without You,, and appeared naked Off Broadway. (We won’t go into Halloween H2O.) And now in The Station Agent, which picked up three awards at Sundance, she plays a librarian who falls for a loner dwarf (wouldn’t you?) who’s inherited a train depot in the wilds of New Jersey. “It was like summer camp,” she says, reminiscing about late-night mischief with the cast. “But for adults.”

Related:

• Archive: “New York Minute”
• Articles by Rebecca Marx
• Table of Contents: October 6, 2003 issue of New York | Subscribe!